Cruise ship experience?

If you're not used to being on the high seas, you may still experience some degree of motion sickness (even with the large size of the cruise ship). It does tend to improve with time, but choppy water has ruined many a cruise experience. It wouldn't hurt to have some meds to take along just in case. For your purposes, the typical meds are:

Dramamine (dimenhydrinate): Available OTC. IMO, this med is a loser vs. other options. It can be moderately effective in a pinch, but the option below is superior.

Dramamine II (meclizine): Also available OTC. This is an extremely effective med for many individuals experiencing motion sickness. Use exactly as directed (including in advance of travel). It may also help those experiencing vertigo/dizzines of vestibular origin. If you ask your MD for a prescription, there is a high probability he/she will hand you a Rx for meclizine (despite OTC status). It is generally well tolerated and the most common side-effect is drowsiness.

"Make sure any recommended meds are alcohol friendly. ;) "

Sorry, but you already know the answer to that HN. No Rx within this class will be alcohol "friendly". EtOH may increase the side-effects of this class of meds. including drowsiness, nervousness, insomnia, urinary retention, etc.

That said, I've personally used meclizine on very choppy seas (diving trips caught in a storm) and even with moderate alcohol consumption I didn't experience any untoward effects. You won't know how you'll react until you're actually on the med and decide if you want to partake in "light refreshment" :D

Enjoy.

Edit: A few more things. Cruise ships mean buffets and food-bourne illness. Norwalk Virus (aka "Montezuma's Revenge") is a ______. Do yourself a favor and have loperamide (aka Imodium) on hand just in case. Dive with care when on any medicines.
 
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I have been on 4 cruises 2 Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean. They all had things i liked about them. The Norwegian is an open type cruse it was not as scheduled, the dining room was open for certain hours and you could eat anytime when it was opened, this was nice because we did not have to rush back to the ship if we were in port doing something. Carnival was fun a lot of stuff to do it always seemed like something was going on on the ship, shows, games, comedians, stuff by the pool. Royal Caribbean it has service 2nd to non, if you want to get waited on from what i have seen this is the line, they brought food to our suite every evening, be it fruit, chocolate, ect. Royal Caribbean dose seem to be more structured then the other 2 lines, dinner at a certain time, shows played twice a night stuff like that. If you like food you might want to try some of the restaurants you pay for, you usually have to make reservations but all of them i have been to have been amazing. Also if you did not book all of your expeditions try to do that as soon as you can some of them fill up very quickly.
 
Now if I can only get my birth certificate in time. *chewing fingernails*
 
Cool, thanks for the advice! We already have an excursion booked for a dolphin swim, and if HN is lucky he may convince me to try parasailing!:eek3:
 
If you're worried about sea-sickness, you might consider trying Sea-Band motion sickness wrist bands. Our daughter frequently gets car-sick, and our doctor recommended them, as he uses them with his own daughter, who also gets car-sick.

When we first tried them I was really surprised to see that they worked well. There have been a few times when they didn't seem to work as well, though...usually after parties, with a belly full of cake and ice cream, so you'll probably still want to have meds on hand, in case. But all in all, I would highly recommend them.

If you haven't tried them yet, I'd give them a shot. They're pretty cheap, and you can find them online pretty easily. They're very stylish, too.

http://www.sea-band.com/seaband.htm
 
The funny thing with me was i only felt the boat moving when i got on land :screwy: My mother used a small patch you could place behind your ear and she said it worked great, even through some rough seas.
 
I also did a cruise to Jamaica and the Caymans. I convinced my mom to do white water rafting in Jamaica and it was the most amazing thing we have ever experienced!!! Also swam with sting rays at Grand Cayman, wow that was awesome. Loved the beginning scuba diving, it was really fun and no certification needed.

As for sea-sickness, my mom gets terribly sea-sick but did not require any kind of medication while on the cruise. I really did not feel much movement at all, and really only felt/heard things while in bed at night. I have tried the prescription patches and they worked well but I experienced terrible side-effects (blurred vision, awful dry mouth). i found Bomine to work well, no drowsiness what-so-ever. I found that it worked better than Dramamine.

Have fun!!!
 
Dunns River Falls was great, seemed like a lot of riding to get there. Aviod the gift shops afterwards. There are much better places to buy things. I would also stick with the group in Jamica.

I also liked the sea turtles on Grand Caymen, you get to pick them up. Grand Caymen is great. The people were so different than the people in Jamica or Mexico. I wish we could have stayed the night there. Our next vacation we want to go just to Grand Caymen.

We were on Royal Caribbean and the staff was awesome. The having assigned seating was odd at first, but paid off by having the same wait staff. Our table mates did not show up all the time and we skipped the formal meals. You really get to know the staff and houskeeping was awesome. When ever we left our cabin, it was cleaned.

What I did not like is the herding like cattle to get off of the ship and to eat. There was also no Moutain Dew. It was all Coke products.
 
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